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Are You Entertained?

Video games are an interesting topic in my life. For my friends, like music and art are for me, they're their favorite thing and how they spend a lot of their time. It's become a weird social thing too. I see my friends for only a few hours each day but they talk for hours on Xbox live and such. I feel in a way further distanced from my friends than they are with each other because of it. I have an Xbox and XBL but I don't have the same games as them and I'm currently out of money (and future money, which will go to more music) so I can't buy them. Honestly I get quite bored with video games when I play them for more than a half an hour.
Another weird thing is that I'll probably, when I'm more dependent on money, get a job doing concept art or something like that in the video games industry. I love doing album art but work is VERY hard to come by and it doesn't pay well at all. I feel that the entire world is just too entertained... and I'd like to not contribute so much to that mindless entertainment, yet I need to in order to support myself/family. I myself feel the need to connect more with my "entertainment". Art and Music are both ways of self expression.
I have a bunch of video game systems: DS, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS, etc. ... but I rarely ever play any of them. I bought everyone of them on impulse because all of my friends have them. Games are too expensive, I'd rather buy more music.
In short, video games... depress me. It's a negative force in my life, even though it's something very simple and makes a lot of people very happy.
I feel the same way about TV and Movies (unless I'm in a real theater). I feel like I could just be doing something better with my life.

Lyrics on this concept:

Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blinds
To let it inside
The bed is unmade,
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker on the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-Box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Somehow better without this
Headlights fuck the city
Somewhere I'm broken
No sensations nevermore

What do you say when you speak
I sense no time
Discouraged television sleep
Not awake until it's dark

Somehow I never leave
This deadhouse
Somehow I don't mind being gone
And if you think you've seen me
I have to prove you
That you're wrong

Katatonia - Deadhouse

Four numbers staring back at me
Displaying the mediocrity of my presence
I´m wasting my day watching them change
the sun with it's blue sky outside
shining down on all you happy people
i´m wasting my day waiting for rain
need more methods to end each day
to be happy by living this way

Katatonia - Quiet World

Here is my car, my phone and my TV
I've got it all but you can see through me

But am I here?
It's kind of hard to tell
I do a good impression of myself
But what's normal now anyhow?

Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way they wish away each day

Prescription drugs they help me through the day
And that restraining order keeps me well at bay
But what's normal now anyway?

Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way they wish away each day.

I can see where your coming from as someone who isn't a 'gamer', but as a gamer myself i have to say that gaming is fast becoming a lifestyle and not just a hobby, i'm sure you've seen the huge cons on games around the globe, sure gaming can be unhealthy, but most people know how to maintain that balance, i would consider myself a serious gamer, but i do see my friends alot and go out and get drunk and be sick lol although it helps as my best friends are also gamers lol it really depends on the person, like you said, games depress you, which is fair enough, i on the other hand, wouldn't be able to live without games, sounds extreme, but i'm sure you'd say the same about music?

I had games as an escape in my younger years and thats never left me, games and art are my life, and i would love nothing more to be able to play/create games for a living. guess i'm an all out technophile who would be in heaven in a room full of high end gaming comps.

and gaming is far more social than people would think, sure its not face to face unless you go to a lan party, which is always extremely fun, and people are really friendly and down to earth most of the time. I have made loads of good friends in relation to games, over the net or down the pub.

i would think alot of people on here are gamers too, correct me if i'm wrong lol

These days I mostly play games for what they are; I'm attracted to unique games with fantastic atmosphere, art direction and/or storytelling. I make exceptions for multiplayer first-person shooters, as they truly are my entertainment. Also, it's good to go back to Wipeout after a year or two.

For music, it can be many different forms of entertainment. From techy Neurofunk tunes that stimulate my imagination to the mentally stimulating Ambient sounds that can be experienced in many ways.
And it's great to hear a story through music once in a while, or just let the passion that went into a more powerful piece do what it does.

I've played games since I was 9, playing on the gameboy. Later the PC etc etc.
I still play alot of games but since the last 2-3years it's just been brainless mindnumbing pill substitutes. Games takes all my life force away, at the same time, Society does the same thing. Going to work, doing shit you dont want to for a person who don't know you for not enough to even get you through the week.. It all just ends in anger and depression.

On the contrary, I love MAKING games, doing art that gives you feeling, movies, acting, music all of this. Creating things, no matter what it is, fills me with joy. But I can't do it. I can't afford it. I can't live on it because I need food and water.

If you ever find some kind of light in your life, write a book or whatever and give us mere ants some hope, please.

If I want to play a new game thats come out I make damn well sure I have done more than enough freelance work to not make me feel guilty when I sit my ass down and be entertained. What I hate, is when people who have never played a game in 10+ years can say its a complete waste of time when I see those same people sitting on there ass every night watching Tv. Entertainment is just that, entertainment, if your reading a book, watching Tv, or playing a game, its all the same IMO.

You can actually learn a lot from playing games, especially if you try to.

I understand where you are coming from, Jake. I, too, find it depressing and frustrating to see that people abuse what I have made. But that’s what it is: abuse. As with alcohol, there is an acceptable level of use, and an unhealthy level, and shades of gray in between.

I get by with considering who it is I make games for. My own personal target audience is my father, because I know that games are just one part of his reasonably well-balanced life, and because he tells me about how much fun he is having with the toy I have made.

I consider fun to be a very important part of life, so I am glad that I am able to provide people with fun.

I think you are awesome, and I wish you the best in your endeavors, but I am tired of repeating myself, I am very busy with my new baby, and I am no longer a regular participant here, so please do not contact me to ask for advice on your career or education. All of the advice that I have to offer can already be found in the following links. Thank you.

The Following User Says Thank You to Seedling For This Useful Post:

Exactly Seedling, why deny yourself some fun now and again? I mean sure drawing and designing cool characters and creatures is fun, but its a different kind of fun to say playing games or watching a movie. Everything in moderation...well ok draw a bit more than the moderation

The Following User Says Thank You to Grief For This Useful Post:

Yeah, I'm entertained by video games. I've been playing since 2 years old (Mario Kart was awesome) and it never stopped amusing me. To echo Saturns Gate, balance is key and video gaming is just another activity. Not everyone likes it and I'm sure there are the other 8923982398 hobbies out there which may be worthwhile for those who choose not to game.

Though, lately, I feel the games are losing the fun factor. As I've stated in another thread a few months ago, I believe the best generation of gaming was the previous one (PS2, GC, XBox) when 3D gameplay was truly being refined over the generation before that (PS1, N64). Nowadays,it seems emphasis has been placed a lot more on graphics and little to no advancements has been made to the gameplay for the most part (you know, what actually makes a game good). This is why, for most games, I prefer the concept art than the actual games because, really, I save a lot of money by enjoying the pretty pictures rather than paying 60+ dollars for rehashed gameplay.

Aside from that, enjoy what you like and I'll play my video games (mostly on the PS2).

Yeah, I'm entertained by video games. I've been playing since 2 years old (Mario Kart was awesome) and it never stopped amusing me. To echo Saturns Gate, balance is key and video gaming is just another activity. Not everyone likes it and I'm sure there are the other 8923982398 hobbies out there which may be worthwhile for those who choose not to game.

Though, lately, I feel the games are losing the fun factor. As I've stated in another thread a few months ago, I believe the best generation of gaming was the previous one (PS2, GC, XBox) when 3D gameplay was truly being refined over the generation before that (PS1, N64). Nowadays,it seems emphasis has been placed a lot more on graphics and little to no advancements has been made to the gameplay for the most part (you know, what actually makes a game good). This is why, for most games, I prefer the concept art than the actual games because, really, I save a lot of money by enjoying the pretty pictures rather than paying 60+ dollars for rehashed gameplay.

Aside from that, enjoy what you like and I'll play my video games (mostly on the PS2).

after playing the forced unleashed demo i really disagree the game play on that one is badass. its nice to change things up every once in a while by jumpin on xbox, but i could definatly live without it if i had to . we mostly use it as a dvd player so me and the girl can spend time together watching a movie since our lives are pretty seperate unless one of us stays up ridiculously long

And the view from the bottom is frequently built on wishful thinking. What career remains as rosy once it stops becoming a goal and is instead an actual daily grind? Being a doctor? Instead of saving lives, you get to feel the frustration as over and over you tell patients they’ll live longer if they give up drinking and smoking and over and over they ignore the advice. Teaching? Try the tripple whammy of watching students fail, dealing with school politics, and getting paid peanuts.

Or once you find out that no career is as shiny when you get there, why not go ahead and take a career that already has a bad reputation, such as being a lawyer? But then you find that the end of the rainbow doesn’t contain buckets of money after all.

As Max Ehrmann said, “Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”

I think you are awesome, and I wish you the best in your endeavors, but I am tired of repeating myself, I am very busy with my new baby, and I am no longer a regular participant here, so please do not contact me to ask for advice on your career or education. All of the advice that I have to offer can already be found in the following links. Thank you.